Dear friends, it is a great blessing and privilege for me to have the opportunity to bring you God's Word on this weekend. I have long looked forward to it, having received a very encouraging report from my colleague at Puritan Reformed Seminary, Dr. Gerald Bilkus, and I take this opportunity to send you his warmest greetings He speaks often of you, having served you last year with much joy in his heart. The subject before us, enjoying a great salvation, is a very important one indeed. Important for several reasons, but let me just mention two of them. First, it's important because it really lies at the very foundation, doesn't it, of what we profess as believers, Reformed experiential believers who emphasize that the truths of God must be experienced not only in the mind but also in the soul. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, of course, tells us in the very first question that this is the whole purpose of our lives, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And of course, we know that to enjoy Him is to enjoy His great salvation, because you can't separate, can you, God and His salvation. God is our salvation. The Lord is our salvation. Indeed, as Jonah said in the belly of the fish, Particularly, to enjoy this great salvation is so important so that God's people don't live below the grand and glorious privileges that God has in mind for them. God takes great delight when, on a good foundation, His children approach Him as their dear Father and confide in Him and are assured by Him and have their confidence in Him and live out of Him and unto Him and through Him. Soli Deo Gloria. Think of it even in family life. I'm blessed with three children and sometimes I say to my children, Do you know what your dad thinks of you?" And all three of them will say, He loves me. He loves me. And they say it with such confidence. And sometimes I think half the reason I ask them is because I want to be able, with the same freedom, to so relate to my Father who is in Heaven, to say with confidence, by the grace of God, by sovereign grace alone, He loves me. What a wonder, friends. What an amazing miracle. What a wonder of glorious grace. And yet, our God, if we are true believers, our God wants us to revel in that wonder, to relish it, to enjoy it to the full, that we may glorify Him And you see, when that happens, our lives become more winsome and more contagious. And we can't help but speaking to one another of the goodness and the gloriousness and the grace of our Father who is in Heaven. Now, many times, well-meaning children of God, no doubt in your circles as well as in mine, have many, many fears. And often those fears keep them from enjoying this great salvation. With God's help, what I want to set before you this weekend is five messages designed to come alongside the fearing and the trembling and to show you the riches that are available in Jesus Christ our Lord by the gracious, and powerful influences of the Holy Spirit taking these truths and applying them to our hearts. Let me provide you just a brief road map where we intend to go. First of all, tonight we want to focus on the apex of the glorious summit of the enjoyment of salvation in knowing that we, if we are true believers, are the sons of God. And so I want to look at this doctrine of adoption with you, our greatest privilege, by looking through the eyes of our forefathers, the Puritans, and seeing how they used this doctrine as a doctrine of transforming power and comfort so as to enjoy God as their Father. Then tomorrow, I want to continue a study of the Puritans by looking at the doctrine of assurance. We're going to look at that through Westminster's chapter 18. The first address, paragraphs 1 and 2. The second address, paragraphs 3 and 4, looking at how God assures his people, how we can lose our assurance as well, and how we can regain it again by the grace of the Holy Spirit. So, tonight and tomorrow, the addresses will not be so much like exegetical sermons, although I'm sure you'll find me preaching as well. In our seminary, sometimes we call it spreeching because it's a combination of speaking and preaching. When you take historical things and try to learn what God has done through our forefathers. And then, of course, on Sunday, on the Sabbath, we will turn to the exposition of specific texts. And then I will be looking at our greatest need, the need for mature faith. We'll look at that through the eyes of Jesus' dealings with the Canaanite woman. And our greatest tragedy, the tragedy of postponed faith, which we'll look at through the case study of Felix. So first then tonight, we want to look at the grand and glorious privilege of the children of God in that they are sons of God. Thomas Watson summarizes this, I think, beautifully when he says, we have enough in us to move God to correct us, but nothing to move Him to adopt us. Therefore, exalt free grace Begin the work of angels here. Bless him with your praises and enjoy him who has blessed you and making you his sons and daughters." Now, the Puritans, I must tell you, have gotten a bad press on this doctrine of adoption. Partly because J. I. Packer, in his classic, Knowing God, in the chapter, Sons of God, makes this rather infamous comment that the Puritans have told us nothing about adoption. He writes, the Puritan teaching on the Christian life, so strong in other ways, was notably deficient on adoption. And many contemporary writers, names of people that you would know as well, have copied Pachyrandas, and so the conclusion until today is that the Puritans haven't really addressed this doctrine. Tonight I want to present a case for you that this is altogether wrong. The Puritans have developed a very thorough and wonderful and glorious doctrine of adoption. Certain Puritans, Hermann Witzius, who was both a Puritan in his thinking but also a Dutch divine gave more treatment to adoption in the systematic theology than any other aspect of salvation. William Perkins, the father of Puritanism, actually has nine different sections in his works addressing different aspects of adoption. And then some Puritans devoted whole sermons to the subject. Jeremiah Burroughs, Thomas Cole, Roger Drake, Thomas Hooker, Thomas Samanthan, Stephen Marshall, Richard Sibbes, John Tennant, than John Waite. In fact, so significant was the emphasis, the Puritan emphasis on adoption, that it was the Puritans who gave us the first Reformed confessional chapter on this glorious subject in the Westminster Confession, chapter 12. But, perhaps even more importantly, what no one seems to have discovered until today is that there are seven entire treatises written by Puritans on this subject. By lesser-known Puritans, none of which have been reprinted until today. John Crabb, Simon Ford, Thomas Brenger, Cotton Mather, Samuel Petto, and Samuel Willard have all written entire books on adoption. Simon Ford's is almost 400 pages. His title is The Spirit of Bonage and Adoption, Largely and Practically Handled, with reference to the way and manner of working out both of these effects, and the proper cases of conscience belonging to them both. Well, I've discovered that there's more than 1,200 pages written by the Puritans on this subject. And so, I want to begin to redress this imbalance, and I want to particularly show you tonight letting the Puritans speak for themselves how rich this doctrine is so that we can learn from them how to enjoy God's great salvation. I want to divide the topic tonight into two parts. First, adoption defined. Adoption defined. Second, adoption applied. Adoption applied. Now, in the first part, in the defining, I have four things that we want to look at in our study of the Puritans. First of all, we're going to look at how they believe this doctrine was very comprehensive. Secondly, how they look at the comparison of what the Old and the New Testament have to say about adoption. Then thirdly, what adoption is not. And fourthly, I want to look with you at what adoption is as they present it in the Westminster Confession of Faith. And I'm going to try to move through these four thoughts fairly rapidly as I want to spend the bulk of our time tonight on applying this doctrine pastorally to you as the Puritans would have us to do. So first then, the Puritans viewed adoption as a transforming comprehensive doctrine. William Perkins, the father of Puritanism, said this, A believer should esteem his adoption as God's child to be greater than being the child or heir of any earthly prince. Since the son of the greatest potentate may be the child of wrath, but the child of God, by grace, hath Jesus to be his eldest brother, with whom he is fellow-heir in heaven, and he hath the Holy Ghost for his Comforter, and the Kingdom of Heaven for his everlasting Inheritance." And the Puritans go on to say, how comprehensive this glorious, transforming doctrine of superlative value truly is. Most Puritans place their treatment of adoption in the order of salvation between justification and sanctification. That's what the Westminster divines do as well. And logically that makes some sense as I'll show you momentarily. But other Puritans have pointed out that though adoption can be viewed as one aspect of salvation, adoption being the apex of the mountain of salvation can also be viewed as summarizing the whole. The Puritan Stephen Marshall writes this, though sometimes in the Holy Scriptures our sonship is but one of our privileges, yet very frequently in the Scriptures, all the believers do obtain from Christ in this world and in the world to come here and to eternity, all I say is comprehended in this one expression, they are made the children of God. Now, if we reflect on this a moment, you will agree with this, if you know your Scriptures at all. You see, again and again the Scriptures say things like this, don't they? I will be your Father, or I will be your God, and you shall be my people, or you shall be my children. Or consider Ephesians 1 verse 5, where Paul comprehends all of salvation in this one expression. God having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. So you see, sometimes Scripture speaks of adoption as one of the greatest blessings of salvation. But sometimes it uses it as a blanket summary of the whole of salvation. So clearly, you see, the Puritans pick up on this and they ascribe a lofty and a comprehensive place to this doctrine. They say, this is the goal of all salvation, that we might be the sons of God. Now, the Puritans recognize, secondly, that when adoption is compared to the two Testaments, there is a vast difference. Herman Litzius speaks to this most clearly. He says, believers in the Old Testament era were also regenerated, also betrothed to Christ, also adopted to become sons of God. In fact, he says, believers at all times were the children of God. Elihu, who was not of the people of Israel, called God his father. And yet, which just goes on to say, the clarity on the believers' adoption in Old Testament times, compared to New Testament believers, varies as much as the light of the stars before that of the sun. New Testament believers are to bask in the sunlight of God's superabounding, adopting grace and liberty merited for them by their elder brother. Lydgius writes this, for after our elder brother, having taken upon him human nature, had visited this lower world and freely undergone a state of various servitude for us. He brought us into true liberty, John 8, 36, removed the tutors, the Old Testament types and shadows, blotted out the handwriting of ordinances which was contrary to us, and he now brings us into the Father's secret councils, shows us the Father by showing us himself, and makes us into a royal priesthood. He calls us directly to an inheritance of spiritual and heavenly good things and appoints unto us a kingdom, so that we are now emphatically and evidently called the sons of God, as Isaiah had prophesied. And the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirits that this is so. And so God consciously becomes the personal father of his adopted children, and his father name becomes God's new covenant name, representing the family covenant to which he binds himself on behalf of his children, so they now have liberty to cry out, Abba, Father. Now, the Puritans would also emphasize with us, thirdly, what adoption is not. You see, there have been people in church history who have mixed up adoption and regeneration. And they haven't realized that even though there are similarities, there are important differences. Adoption deals with our status. You see, by nature we are children of wrath and children of the devil. Our status is one of alienation and condemnation. But because of the sin-removing and heaven-meriting work of Christ, our whole status changes when we are born again so that we become the children of God. But if in adoption we would receive only the privilege and status of being God's children, something important would still be missing. You see, the adopted child retains the nature of his biological parents. He does not assume the nature of his adoptive parents. But God, in his amazing grace, not only gives us the status and privilege as believers of being his children by adoption, but he also gives us the spirit of sonship as a witness to our adoption, which abides within us by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. which implants a new nature within us. We don't only have the status of belonging to God as His children, but we get a new nature as well. And you see, it's regeneration that does that. Now, adoption is also not justification. Some people get those mixed up as well. Justification, as you know, is the primary, fundamental blessing of the Gospel. It meets our basic spiritual need to be forgiven of sin and to be reconciled with God. And we couldn't be adopted, could we, without justification. But adoption is in many ways a richer blessing than justification. You see, justification brings us into the courtroom to be absolved of guilt. But adoption goes a step further. It takes us from the courtroom into the family, into the family of God, around the family table. And it treats us as legitimate children. So justification is conceived of in terms of a law. We call it a forensic concept, a judicial concept. It's a law term. But adoption is a love term. It's a family term. It's a term of intimacy. In justification, we view God as our judge. In adoption, we view Him as our tender Father. Now, when you study the Puritans, on the relation between adoption and justification, you actually find three slightly different views. One view, like the Dutch Puritan, will hum us our broccol, is this. Since justification consists of forgiveness of sin, which is the negative side of justification, something is taken away, sin is taken away, as well as the right to eternal life, something is added, that's the positive side. Adoption belongs under that positive side. To say that you get a right to eternal life, Braco said, you are called the children of God. You are declared heirs. And there's a sense in which this is true. From God's side, objectively, this is true. When you're justified, you are brought also into this right of eternal life by which you are made children of God. And so, Brackel includes adoption under justification. Thomas Ridgely, a somewhat more moderate Calvinist, is best known for his exposition and perhaps the only very good exposition of the Westminster larger catechism, he includes adoption partially under justification and partially under sanctification. And he argues, and I think for good reason, that in terms of our state with God, it belongs under justification. We are made right with God. But in terms of our subjective experience of the Spirit, witnessing with our spirit, that gives us a boost, doesn't it? And sanctification makes us more holy, makes us more tender with God. So, objectively, he puts it under justification. Subjectively, what goes on inside, he puts it under sanctification. But thirdly, most of the Puritans, including the Westminster Assembly, place it between justification and sanctification. and give it a separate treatment. And I think this is perhaps the best way of all. Samuel Willard emphasizes that the Bible clearly distinguishes justification and adoption in Romans 8, which we read to you, was read in your hearing, Ephesians 1, verse 5, and elsewhere as well. Scripture makes plain, you see, that it is one thing to be judged righteous and another thing to be placed among God's children. to sit around the table and enjoy the family benefits of God as Father. One thing to have God declare me free as judge, and another for Him to embrace me personally as Father. So, adoption is not regeneration. Adoption is not justification. And lastly, adoption is not sanctification. Sanctification is actually a working out of adoption. Adoption, I'm brought into the family of God. Sanctification is learning how to cultivate those family characteristics so that I look and sound spiritually like a child of God and am made holy like I belong to the family of God. Well, let's look fourthly then, briefly, at the Westminster Assembly's definitions of adoption. Then we're going to move into the practical parts tonight. The Westminster Assembly defines adoption in all three documents. The Shorter Catechism says, most briefly of course, adoption is an act of God's free grace whereby we are received unto the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. Larger Catechism, Question 74, expands on that. Adoption is an act of the free grace of God in and for the sake of His only Son, Jesus Christ, whereby all those who are justified are received unto the number of His children, have God's name put upon them, the spirit of His Son given to them, are under His fatherly care and dispensations, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises and fellow heirs with Christ in glory. What a wonderful definition. And then the confession of faith itself, chapter 12, puts it this way. All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth in and for his only son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, if His name put upon them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry, Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as a Father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation. Now permit me for just a moment to make a few quick applications of what Westminster does here. The first thing I want to say is, isn't it fascinating that the Westminster divines, so often impugned today in scholarship around the world as being too scholastic in their theology. that these very same divines provided the Christian Church's first confessional chapter on adoption, which is one of the least scholastic doctrines of the Christian faith. But secondly, did you notice how the Westminster divines show us that union with Christ is inseparable from adoption? The sonship we receive as believers is Christ-sonship. in the first place. Adoption transpires in and for His Son, Jesus Christ, Westminster says, so that the adopted have His name put upon them, the spirit of His Son given to them. And so not only justification and sanctification flow to us from union with Christ, but so does adoption. And that is very important to see pastorally. as I hope to show you in a few moments, that when we are united with Christ, you see, we look for adoption as an outgrowth of what He has done for us, not something that we can conjure in our own hearts or in our own experience. And thirdly, the Westminster divides do a marvelous job of harmonizing the forensic aspect, the judicial, the courtroom aspect of adoption. with the familial aspect, the family aspect. They both speak, you see, both shorter and larger catechism, as well as the major document of the judicial pronouncement of adoption, but also the adopted experience of sonship, what they call the liberties and privileges of adoption. And finally, Did you notice how all three stress that adoption is an act of God's free grace? In adoption, the unlovable sinner is freely loved by God and taken, without any merit of his own, into the divine family. Recently, in my own congregation, one of our theological students took into his family a homeless drunk The man you would say from all appearances is good for nothing, he's on the streets all the time, he's an alcoholic, he's into drugs, all kinds of problems. He absolutely hasn't done one thing to deserve the kind of love that this theological student and his wife has shown him by taking him into their own home and treating him as a son. And may I suggest to you tonight that when God the Father, for the sake of His Son and by His Spirit, takes you and me into His divine family, the contrast is even greater. We who deserve the homelessness of hell forever, we who deserve that portion of Cain to be vagabonds walking over this earth, God stoops down in all our insanity of sin, in all the heinousness of sin. He draws us up out of the abyss of our own horrible pit and miry clay. He draws us, as it were, as Samuel Rutherford put it, from the very abyss of hell. And He pulls us up and He sets us in His own family. And He trains and molds us in Christ to be sons of God. Oh, what free grace this is! Thomas Watson put it this way, Adoption is a mercy spun out of the bowels of free grace. All by nature are strangers. Therefore, none have right to sonship. But God is pleased to adopt one and not another, to make one a vessel of glory, so that the adopted heir may cry out, Lord, how is it? that thou wilt show thyself to Me and not unto the world." I trust that there are many among us tonight who can echo that cry. Oh God, how is it possible? How couldst Thou show this to me? Who am I? And what is my house? that Thou hast brought me hitherto." It's sheer, one-sided, sovereign, divine grace. Adoption is an act of free grace whereby we are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. Well, let me apply that now And I want to apply that to you in four ways. The first way is I want to show you the kind of pastoral advice the Puritans gave. The kind of pastoral advice the Puritans gave. The Puritans said that there are four kinds of hearers in the church with regard to members of the church and their attitudes with respect to adoption. The first is that some are visibly adopted into God's church family, but lack its experiential power. Thomas Shepard speaks of these. He says they are external sons. The Lord takes them by outward covenant to be his sons. And they're very much, Shepherd goes on to say, like the Jews of the Old Testament. Some were not of Israel, even though they were of Israel. And so in the church, there are often people who make a profession of faith, but they don't know the experience of faith. And so they are outwardly members of the church. They have a name that they are sons of God, but they are strangers of that sonship. And Thomas Manton says, manna is around their tents from sabbath to sabbath, but they would rather starve than gather it. The spirit is ready, but they are lazy, he concludes. And they don't have a heart for this thing, this wonderful benefit. And so they come to church, they warn the church people from week to week, they won't think of missing, they have all the external privileges of being the sons of God, but they don't know at all the joy of real and abiding sonship. Now, ministers, said Shepard, must warn such people of the danger of remaining members internally of Satan's family, even when they appear to be members externally of God's family. And ministers must plead with such sinners to repent and believe in the gospel and trust God's mercy alone and nothing of themselves for adoption. But secondly, the Puritans say, there are some professing members of the Church who are under the spirit of bondage. That is, the Holy Spirit has entered their lives, has convicted them of sin, but as yet they have found no liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, Puritans say that ministers must speak to such people by reminding them of their danger, their invitation, and their encouragement. Their danger is that if they don't take refuge to Christ with penitent faith and come to know the spirit of adoption, they will perish. You don't go to heaven by getting convicted of sin alone. Conviction of sin must lead, by the Spirit's tutelage, to the Savior. Secondly, ministers must give them the invitation to come to Christ immediately with all their sin, just as they are. also the sin of lacking childlike fear of God. It must ask the Spirit to drive them out of their self-confidence, as well as their conviction, and cause them to storm the mercy seat. And their encouragement is, in the words of Simon Ford, that God will not keep His elect indefinitely in bondage for several reasons. Religion would become uncomfortable and unappealing were He to do so. And people would faint under their burden of sin and develop hard thoughts of God. So, it's God's desire, it's God's tendency, it's God's business to lead people from bondage into liberty, to show sinners that it is not in vain to serve the living God. God wants to wean His children from this world and He wants to commune often with them. One old Puritan put it this way, He said, God would have the world hanging like a loose tooth in our mouth, which, being easily twitched away, doth not much bother us. And then third, some sincere children of God have, at best, a weak sense of their own sonship. But at least they have some sense of it, but not just under the spirit of bondage. You see, objectively, of course, every single believer is equally a son of God. One is not more of a son of God than another. But there's a difference subjectively. Some believers are unable to lay hold of that sonship with great freedom. Thomas Manton put it this way, the weak ones have a childlike inclination to God. but they lack the childlike familiarity and boldness with God. They have a childlike reverence for God as Father, but they lack a childlike confidence in Him as their Father. They have a childlike dependence on God's general offers of grace, but they are not persuaded of the sincerity of their particular claim. Now, Thomas Madden offers four counsels. He said, this is what ministers must say to such people. First of all, disclaim, disclaim when you cannot apply. What he means by that is this. If you cannot say, Father, then plead on your fatherless condition. And use such text, says Hosea 14 verse 3, in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. Tell the Lord that you don't feel His fatherhood at all. Lord, have mercy upon me as a fatherless one that I may come to know Thee as Father, you see. Second, it says, Madsen, own God in a humbling way. And what he means by that is come to the Father like the prodigal son confessing your unworthiness. Come like Paul as the chief of sinners. Come like Asaph, as a beast before God. Come to Him as your Father Creator, if you cannot come to Him as your Father's Savior. And then third, says Manton, call Him Father by wish. And what he means by that is, if you cannot call Him Father with directness, do it with desire. He says, let us pray ourselves into this relation and groan after it that we may have a clearer sense that God is our Father in Christ. And fourthly, and this is the most important advice, he says, make much use of Christ Jesus. Since Christ's name means so much in heaven, he says, if you cannot come to God as your Father, come to Him as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let Christ bring you into God's presence. He is willing to change places with you. Take Him along with you in your arms. Go to God in Christ's name. And whatsoever you ask in My name, He says, shall be given to you. And then fourthly, many believers, by the grace of God, do experience the joy of knowing they are the sons and daughters of God. A knowledge that is grounded in objective truth. They believe, by the grace of God, that they are known of God. They believe that on the basis of the promises of God, they believe that on the basis of their own experience, being reflective of the marks and steps of grace, and they believe that by witnessing with their spirits that they are the children of God. We'll see more of that tomorrow. They believe, by the grace of God, that they are predestinated to the adoption of children according to the good pleasure of His will. Ephesians 1 verse 5. But what distinguishes these believers from others isn't only believing this objectively with certitude. It's also realizing their adoption subjectively. And the Puritans called this the witnessing testimony of the Holy Spirit. which they identify with the consciousness in my soul of the sealing of the spirit and the assurance of faith, which again we'll talk more about tomorrow. But what happens in that is that the spirit comes alongside the believer and witnesses with his spirit that indeed these things like humility and hungering and thirsting after God's righteousness and blessed are the meek and blessed are they that mourn over sin, these things which the believer cannot deny that he has experienced. The Holy Spirit comes along and also affirms that with conviction, so that I can say, I didn't give these things to myself, and certainly the devil wouldn't give them to me, and therefore I must be a child of God. And he witnesses with conviction that this is indeed the work of the Spirit in my life. Now, sometimes the Spirit, some of the Puritans, does that directly, through a direct application of one or more texts from the Bible. We'll talk more about that tomorrow as well. But other times he does that reflectively, so that as we reflect back on our own lives, he enters into that reflection, shines his light upon what the Spirit has done in our lives, and we say, by the grace of God, I have been made a child of God. Well, the Puritans said, Such believers are to hold fast their profession, they are to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are to speak much to others to witness of the Father's goodness to them, and they are to lead lives of service to God and to man, speaking well of the Lord, and asking of God for opportunity day by day to declare His goodness to sinners. So that's the first major major application of the doctrine of adoption. I hope you understand from this that there are different cases of conscience, as the Puritans said, in the congregation. And each case of conscience must be handled differently so that God's people might grow in the subjective realization of the enjoyment of being a son of God. But now, there's another application I need to bring before you. And that's the application of 1 John 3. It was also read to you tonight. And that application focuses on how adoption transforms our outlook on life. It transforms all our relationships. Adoption is a transforming doctrine. The Puritans thought that adoption, sonship, must be the controlling thought of our spiritual lives, the normative category at every point in every relationship. Every single relationship in my life is transformed by it. Let me explain what I mean, and I'm going to take you now to 1 John 3. 1 John 3. The first relationship, and the major one of course, is our relationship to God. So you see in verse 1, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Well, you see immediately, don't you, this marvel, actually the text here in the original Greek implies what kind of love is this? From what world does this love come? Who ever heard of such love? Sinners, rebels, enemies in ourselves should be called the sons of a perfect, heavenly, loving, glorious Father who controls the universe. You can see, can't you, that if a child of God really believes that this is his portion, how it transforms his whole relationship with his Father in heaven, what genuine security it gives to him. If I'm a son of the Father, my place is secure with God? And you see, Jesus talked that, didn't he, to his disciples in so many ways. He urged them to think about God's fatherly love by comparing it to the love of a human father. And if you've had a good relationship with your father, you will be able to identify with that. Matthew 7, verse 11, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? So Jesus compares the imperfect fatherhood of earthly fathers who are evil, that is, they have fallen natures, they show flaws and failures and sins, with the perfect fatherhood of God. And because my Father in Heaven is flawless in His fatherhood, despite my shortcomings, if I belong to Him, I have all the security I could ever ask for in this world. So my relationship with God is transformed. As the Heidelberg Catechism puts it in question one, what is your only comfort in life and death? That I don't belong to myself. I belong to my faithful God and Father through the Lord Jesus Christ and His precious cleansing blood. Secondly, our relationship to the world changes. Look at the end of verse 1. Therefore, the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. You see, on the one hand, the believer shares with Jesus the unspeakable love of the Father. Jesus becomes the elder brother, but I become his brother, and thus, as a believer, and thus share with him the one fatherhood of God, but on the other hand we also share with Jesus then the hostility and the estrangement, yes, even the hatred of the world. If we're adopted sons of God and Jesus is our brother and we are co-heirs with Jesus of the grace of life and the world hated Jesus, the world will hate us as well. So don't expect, you see, as a Christian to have the love of the Father as His child and have the love of the world as if you're a child of the world. In fact, the very sonship of God calls you to a life of separation from the world. You are to be transformed. You are to transform in relationship of this world. As Romans 12 says, be transformed in your mind. Thirdly, being an adopted son also transforms my relationship to my future. If I am a son of God, I cherish a very great hope. John goes on to say in 1 John 3, verse 2, It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. You see, the prospects for God's adopted family are great. For His children receive a glorious inheritance. An inheritance which we cannot even imagine the extent of it. Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for them that love Him. And so when I'm a son of God, I look to the future and I say to myself, my Father in Heaven, will save the best wine till last. And I cannot even imagine what He has in store for me. So good and so rich it is. Certainly all my sorrow shall be turned into joy. My father used to say to me as a boy, sometimes God's people go into the grave with more unanswered riddles than answered. There are so many things we don't understand in this life. Jesus said it, didn't He? What I do now thou knowest not, but thou shalt know hereafter. Sometimes the hereafter is five minutes from now. Sometimes it's next week. Sometimes it's a year from now. Sometimes it's not till eternity. Hereafter. But if I'm a son of God, I'm secure in my Father's hands, and the hereafter will come. And one day I will understand all that my Father has done with me and to me. And the older I grow in grace, the more I begin to understand. My children now are 15, 13, and 10. And I find that I'm not saying to them nearly as often as I was when they were 5 and 2 and 3 and 1. You don't understand, but you will understand some day. but I want you to do this, so I don't want you to do that, or you must go this way. Later on, when you get older, you'll understand. And you see, as we grow in relationship with our Father, and we begin to think like our Father thinks, and we begin to think not, what is He doing to me, but we begin to think in terms of who we are in the grander purposes of God's Kingdom and God's Church, and that the whole goal of our lives is not that I am happy, but that I reflect His glory in this world. When I begin to understand that, I begin to unlock the secrets of why God deals with me, why He sends me afflictions, and why He matures me through those long, dark tunnels of affliction. But all the while, you see, I know that I have a glorious future because I'm on my way to my Father's mansions. If it were not so, He would have told me. I'm on my way home to my Father's house. Abba, Father. So I have a new relationship, a transformed relationship with God, and with the future, and with the world, but fourthly, also with myself. If I'm a child of my Heavenly Father, you see, I embrace His will and His purpose for me. Every adopted child of God knows that holiness is a critical part of God's purpose for the child's happiness in God's family. And look at 1 John 3, verse 3. Every man that hath this hope in himself purifieth himself, even as he is pure. The Puritan John Cotton said this, every child of God has hope in Christ to be made like Him in His appearing. And that hope is a patient, certain, and grounded expectation of all those promises in Christ which by faith we believe to belong to us. And so, each day, as I strive to purify myself, I don't do that in my own strength, but I use Christ as my pattern. I gaze upon my elder brother and I glean strength from him. And I understand what that means because I grew up with two older brothers, one three years older, one six years older. And well, I was always wanting to be more like them. They wouldn't even let me play with them if I couldn't keep up with them. And so I had to strive to be like them. And they taught me things. And they counseled me. When we played school, I was always the student. They were always the teacher, you see. And so it is with Jesus, the elder brother. He's always teaching us. He's always purifying us so that we might purify ourselves by the Spirit He puts within us. And purifying ourselves involves loving all that the Father loves and hating all that the Father hates. And so from the moment of conversion, to the time we take our final breath. We have one pursuit. To purify ourselves before our Father. To be more like Christ. And the more I realize my sonship, the more I realize the elder brothership of Christ, the brotherhood of Christ, the more I find strength to do that. Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. And finally, fifthly, When I live as an adopted son, I enjoy not only a new relationship to God and to myself and to the future and so on, but also to the church as the family of God. Look down in this chapter, verses 14-18. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren and so on. As God's adopted sons, you see, we've been placed into a great family. And if we properly understand this, my dear friends, our attitude toward our brothers and sisters in the family of God will be profoundly impacted. I have not been adopted into God's family to live as an only child or as a lone ranger. I have been adopted to live in the family, to live within the network of relationships, to live within the corporate family of the Church of God. And if I don't love my brother and sister in the faith, in the family of God, I don't love God. And if I claim to love God and I hate my brother and my sister, says John, I am a liar. You see, John says he wants this love to exist not just between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and the believer, but this love then spreads itself out between brothers and sisters in Christ. So that if I love my Father in heaven, I cannot help but love my brothers and sisters on earth, despite all their flaws, spots, and wrinkles. John Cochrane concludes, the lack of love to any of our brethren is a sign of abiding in the state of damnation. Strong statement. So, that's another practical application of this doctrine. that we understand adoption, a subjective realization of adoption means my whole life is transformed. I see myself as part of God's family, as a son of God, as a brother of Christ. My future is secure in the triune God. But then thirdly, there's a third major application I want to set before you. Something that the Puritans call, over and over again, the privileges and the benefits of adoption. And I have to be very brief here, but what they say is basically this. There is one overarching privilege that you might hang all the others on. That's the primary privilege presented in the New Testament, also in Galatians, Romans 8 and Galatians 4. And that is that I am an heir of God and a co-heir of Christ. So, we'll put it in one word for you. Heirship. I have an inheritance. God's adopted children are royal heirs apparent and co-heirs with Christ. Romans 8, 16, 17. Jeremiah Burroughs the Puritan said, Man may have many children, but there is only one heir. But with God, all His children are heirs. Isn't that beautiful? Hebrews 12.23 actually calls believers firstborn heirs. Heirs with special privileges. Heirs because we are joined heirs with Christ. And as joined heirs with Christ, we are believers who share in Christ's kingship. And therefore, we partake of the Kingdom of Heaven as our inheritance. So the Bible tells us that the meek shall inherit the earth. You see, God's people, God's meek adopted sons, have all things belonging to them, because they belong to Christ. And Christ owns the cattle upon a thousand hills, and Christ belongs to God. And therefore, all things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God. So all things in heaven and on earth for time and for eternity actually belong to God's people. What a rich inheritance if I'm an adopted son! And something mysterious happens. A paradox. In one sense, I don't own anything. In another sense, I own everything. Paul put it this way, didn't he? Was it 2 Corinthians 4 or 2 Corinthians 6? Possessors of nothing and yet possessors of all things. I look at my children and I say, they don't even belong to me because they are God's gift to me to rear for Him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They belong to God, but I belong to God. And therefore, my children and I and all my possessions, everything belongs to God. John Kelvin put it this way. He said, if you're unconverted, You really can't get real enjoyment out of anything. It's all so temporary, so fleeting. But he said, if you're a believer, and everything that comes your way, even the furniture in your home or the car you drive or even physical possessions, everything comes to you through the right hand of the favor of God rather than the left hand of the forbearance of God as it comes to the unbeliever. And when it comes through God's right hand of favor, You see, I can enjoy it as a son of God. It's my Father giving me these gifts. What a difference that makes. How would you women feel if on your next birthday, your husband came along and said, well, here's a birthday card, wife, because it's your birthday so I have to give you one. You wouldn't enjoy it at all. You'd say, well, if that's your attitude, If you feel compelled, if I'm just getting it because you feel you have to, I can't enjoy it. But if your husband comes along and says, my dear, you are a treasure and here's a card for you. But this card cannot begin to put in words how wonderful, how loving, how sweet, how precious, how much you mean to me. You're going to receive a card in a whole different spirit, aren't you? But you see, that's exactly what happens when I'm an adopted son. I look through new spectacles. I look at my furniture. I look at my car. I look at my wife. I look at my children. I look at my work. I say it is all the gift of my Father. And I must use it all for His honor and glory. It changes everything, you see. And I come to enjoy it. When I get my paycheck, I don't pocket it and say, now, what do I want to do with it? No, no, no. I say, how does my Father want me to use this? for His honor and His glory. I have a different reference point. It's no longer me, my, and mine that I live for. This little tiny world of myself, but now I live for the big world, the universe, because my Father owns the universe. What a difference. You know, I served in the U.S. Army because I was old enough to be in the last lottery system of the United States before they went to a volunteer army. And I got a low number and had to go in the army. And when I came out of the army, I'll never forget a drill sergeant saying to me on the very last day, he said, I hope you make it out there in the world. And I said, what do you mean, sir? He said, it's a pretty nasty world out there. I said, yes, but I said, You need help everywhere, don't you? Oh, yeah, he said, but I've got Uncle Sam, which means the government. I've got Uncle Sam here in the army, so I've got security. I said, sir, pardon me for saying this, but I have far greater security. The God of the universe is my God. He will take care of me because I'm his child. And you see, even my unbrotherliness will not unbrother me from my dear brotherhood who is committed with an everlasting brotherhood. And my Father is committed with an everlasting fatherhood. And the Holy Spirit is committed with an everlasting commitment to be my Comforter and Sanctifier and Dweller. The Triune God is committed with His own inter-Trinitarian love to love His people even to the end. I am an heir and a co-heir with Christ. Praise me to God. There's no joy like this in all the world. But then there are, in addition to this overarching privilege, you see, there are all these specific blessings that are so precious that flow to us from the Fatherhood of God. Let me just list them for you briefly before I close tonight. First of all, it's our Father who cuts us off from the family to which we naturally belong in Adam as children of wrath and of the devil. And He engrafts us into His own family and makes us members of this wonderful covenant family of God. It's our Father who gives us freedom to call on Him by His Father name and who gives us a new name. and guarantees our admission to the house of God as sons and daughters of God. It's our Father who gives us the spirit of adoption, who enlightens our mind and sanctifies our heart and makes His wisdom and will known to us. It's our Father who grants us likeness to Himself and to His Son by His Spirit, imparting to us a filial heart and a disposition that resemble His own. It's our Father who strengthens our faith through His promises and prayer, the gift of prayer. Thomas Watson put it this way, if we are adopted, he says, then we have an interest in all the promises of God, for the promises are the children's bread. I love that statement. Bread is our staple food, isn't it? Some of you children, you probably have a slice of bread every day, don't you? For breakfast perhaps or lunch. Every day. A slice of bread. Oh, said Watson, God's promises are my bread. Every day I open the Word. Every day I feed on those promises. William Spurstow, another Puritan, said God takes His promises like a big bag of golden coins and He puts it on our feet and He unties the string and He empties it and He says, take, My child, what you will. Oh, what a glorious God we have. Rich in promise. In the garden of God's promises, there is an herb to be found to cure every ailment. And what a gift our Father has with us in giving us prayer. I can go in prayer to my Father? What a blessing. When I was nine years old, my father once took me aside into his bedroom and he sat me on his bed and he said, I wish I could write this with an iron pen on your heart that you would never forget it. And I did never forget it. He said the difference between a believer and an unbeliever is that a believer has a place to go. A throne of grace. Oh, what a gift. A throne of grace. If you're a believer tonight, you will agree with me, won't you, that a throne of grace to go to is worth more than everything you own in this world. You know the story of the bricklayer in front of Spurgeon's house? He was swearing and using God's name in vain. And Spurgeon said, here, here's 50 pounds if you never use the name of God again. And the bricklayer went home and that evening he struck his daughter too hard and his daughter became very ill. She lay in her deathbed within a matter of days. And every time the bricklayer wanted to pray, he couldn't pray because he couldn't use the name of God. And finally, he got so frustrated, he came back to Spurgeon. He took that 50 pound note and he threw it at his feet. And he said, no amount of money is worth it to not use the name of God. How sweet the name of Jesus is to a believer's ear. But how sweet the name of Father is to a needy child. Oh, the gift of coming to God in prayer as a father. As a father who is never too busy to hear me. His throne of grace is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. In America, we have some signs. It says, open 360 days a year. Or 364 days a year. Not our God. Not our Father. He's open every day. His ear is open, tuned to this earth, delighting to hear the cries of His child.